The 23-year-old Peirson is slated to start his fifth consecutive game at centre when the B.C. Lions wrap up their Canadian Football League regular season at home Saturday night against the Calgary Stampeders.

Back in training camp, when the rookie free agent out of unheralded Gannon University (Erie, Pa.) was looking to just stick with the team’s practice roster, someone dropped the “Little Angus” moniker on him, thinking he resembled longtime Lions centre Angus Reid.

“It was one of the coaches in one of the meetings, and I took it as a great compliment,” Peirson said. “I think it gave me some motivation to keep working.

“It’s an honour any time you are compared to someone who has had such a long career and has been both a successful player and a great teammate. He’s definitely someone I can strive to model my game after.”

Peirson grew up in Kingston and played high school ball with the Holy Cross Crusaders and rep ball with the Limestone District Grenadiers. Another Holy Cross product is Brent Johnson, a defensive end who was part of the Lions’ core group at the same time as Reid.

Reid has been popping up all over social media of late, thanks to his book Thank You Coach — Learning How To Live By Being Taught How To Play recently being released. He’s slimmed down in retirement, but in his playing days was listed at 6-1 and 305 pounds.

The Lions have Peirson at 6-3 and 300 pounds. He and Reid have similar body types, similar movements and mannerisms.

“I went to see Wally [Buono, the Lions head coach] early in the summer and right away he said, ‘You have to look at this guy,’ and when he came up on the screen I wasn’t sure for a second — is that me?’” explained Reid, 42, who retired in 2014 following 13 CFL seasons.

“I met him that day. I was really impressed with him as a person. He was kind, gracious, intelligent. He presents himself with a smile on his face.

“I heard he was getting his first start a few weeks ago and I made a point to just focus on him the entire game and I thought he did great.”

That start came back on Oct. 6 against the Toronto Argonauts and occurred because veteran centre Cody Husband (leg) and then third overall draft pick Peter Godber (ankle) were sidelined with injuries. Peirson had been on the practice roster until that point.

“I had little goals when I got here. I got to play in one of the pre-season games. Things like that,” Peirson said.

“That’s what you have to do. You keep working and you take it a little bit at a time. It’s like the analogy about taking down the tree. You keep swinging. You take out a chip here, and then a chip there, but you keep swinging. Eventually, my time to start came.”

Reid was quick to add: “I don’t think I could pull off what he’s doing right now when I was that young,” and you do forget that it took him some time to find his game.

It’s easy to gloss over now that Reid was the fourth overall pick in the 2001 CFL draft by the Toronto Argonauts but was cut by the Argos before playing a game with them.

“What he’s doing now speaks volumes for him as a person,” said Reid, who was quick to credit the Lions for finding Peirson, although he did give it one caveat.

“They must have been searching for another Angus Reid,” he said with a chuckle.